


A Light Thrown Into The Darkness

by achrmy



Category: Original Work
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-01-01
Updated: 2014-01-01
Packaged: 2018-01-07 00:07:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 767
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1113139
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/achrmy/pseuds/achrmy
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Galaxies of various sizes collide with one another, eventually merging. Very few stars come into contact during the process, but the forces do fling several stars out into intergalactic space.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Light Thrown Into The Darkness

It is hardly any wonder that the early cultures worshiped the Sun far above all else. Ethero, the lord of light and salvation, banished darkness to the realm of order, to come and go at the established times. For each and every day there follows a night, a reminder of the gift of Sun and day and the lord’s promise of his return. 

The Moon also found worship alongside the Sun. The white disk often graces the sky during the night, shedding waxing and waning light, sometimes only a sliver, yet still a light that outshines the darkness. But the Moon does not always appear at all times. Almost every night there is a period of total darkness. Every so often a night will pass when that light does not appear at all. We become like those blind. Only by delving into the deep places below can that darkness be seen in the time of day.

And yet…we know there is something rather than nothing around us. A few pinpricks of light shine down from the vast pitch-dark dome above, as many as six at a time. There are the two morning and evening stars and the four others that navigate across the darkness. Against the stark backdrop they shine from unfathomably far away, sparkling red, white, and yellow gems. Always at least one appears each night, a reminder that we will not spend an entire night alone.

Yet they are not always with us for an entire night. There are times during the night when there is absolutely no light at all, even from these tiny lights. 

And then there is one other thing I forgot to mention. A tiny little thing, hovering at the edge of sight, hardly worth mentioning, but one we have known for as long as we have gazed up at the dark void above us. 

On such nights we sit outside our homes and think about that darkness in the sky. I know I often have. It is impossible not to do so when darkness presses in from all around, banishing all warm thoughts that distract from our bleak fate. What is out there we wonder? If void is all there appears to be, what is the Moon? What are those small lights?

How can I express how lonely this sight has made us feel, has made me feel! The Sun can make the darkness a distant memory. Even those few small lights of night I cherish and long to know. They are all we have here. 

We know what they are these days; objects like our own home. We all orbit our Sun, our source of all life in this dark place, passing the years together. The Moon orbits our own home and other moons orbit the planets, despite that they and we do not give light like our Sun.

But where has all this come from, this tiny group of voyagers? Are we a single candle, cast out in an infinite void? Are we a bonfire, concealed beneath a dark shade?

So now I return to that small, tiny thing I mentioned earlier and add that we are certain that it does not orbit the Sun, at least not like the rest of the lights do. Unlike the planets, when we turn a telescope to gaze upon it the thing appears fuzzy and gray. We have discovered other objects of light with the same instruments that we use to examine and ponder this tiny object, the asteroids, the other moons, and the outer planets, far, far away. From some of these worlds the Sun and our home must look like points of light. Still, we do not know anything more about this light I now speak of, this least of all the lights, the Sun, the Moon, the planets, the comets, that we have seen since the very beginning.

Tonight I strain my sight as I gaze at this newest image of the tiny thing; the shape looks so big now! And I think, that maybe, just maybe…I no longer see smears of grey, but countless points of light. Could it be? Am I just imagining this sight? Are we alone? Are there others out there, far away in those smudges of grey that almost look like swarms of Suns?

Even if others do exist out there we would never know. By the time a signal of light crosses the hundreds of thousands of light years all the photons will have been scattered away.

We may or may not be alone, but we will be inevitably lonely.


End file.
